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Hey, welcome to Vox’s new daily newsletter!

We’re calling it Today, Explained, and it’ll be run by me, Caroline Houck. 

I’m Vox’s senior editor of news, a role I’ve come to after five years at Vox, covering some of the biggest stories of those years. That included the Trump impeachments, the 2020 election, and one of the biggest Supreme Court terms in recent memory, before I took over our international section just in time for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Now I’m here overseeing this newsletter, and I am psyched.

When something happens in the world — whether it’s an explosion abroad, one at home, or even a metaphorical explosion in, say, the world of American academia — my first instinct is always to ask my Vox colleagues about it. I want to lurk in their Slack channels and pop over to their desks to listen in on how they’re breaking down the big stories.

That’s how I navigated Covid and how I processed what was going on with the American judicial system after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And it’s how I had something to say about one half of 2023’s summer movie sensation (because yes, I admit it: I still haven’t watched Oppenheimer).

My favorite way to understand the world is through the eyes of our newsroom.

And now, each day in your inbox, we’re going to bring that view to you.

It means that every day, Monday through Friday, we’ll start Today, Explained with a classic Vox explainer about something interesting and important happening in the world. 

It’ll work like this: A reporter, producer, or editor will walk us through that one big story, explaining it with nuance and clarity. It’ll be about as long as this email — maybe a little shorter or a little longer, depending on the topic. And it will always be conversational and approachable, even as we weave in the deep research, reporting, and analysis you’ll always find at Vox.

So today, if we weren’t introducing this newsletter to you, we might have covered the Grammys or dug into economic news after Friday’s impressive jobs report. We want to explain the news. So I’ll look around the newsroom each day and see which Voxxer might be best positioned to do so, then bring them to your inboxes.

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But seeing the world through Vox’s eyes also means seeing our societies’ unsolved problems and how we might fix them. It means unraveling the universe’s unanswered mysteries. It means wondering why capitalism works this way, scrutinizing our culture, and thinking intentionally about how we live better lives. We know you all are curious about the world — and that you care about it.

To fulfill that need, we’ll bring you explainers to these questions that are out there, all around us.

Whether we’re covering something that’s in the news or not, though, I want all of you to know you’re always going to walk away from Today, Explained with the day explained.

We’ll curate the most important news of the day and the most interesting conversations happening around the internet here in the second half of the newsletter. These are the stories that we at Vox are paying attention to — and that we’ll deliver to you.

We’ll also share the latest episode from Today, Explained (the podcast). The team there — led by hosts Sean Rameswaram and Noel King — shares our mission of explaining the world in a way that’s accessible, informative, and often fun. I might be biased, but you should listen. And we’ll include one link to a great piece of Vox journalism every day, be it an article, video, or podcast.

If you want breadth or depth — or both! — we’ve got you covered. We’ll see you tomorrow!

—Caroline Houck, senior editor of news

Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images

New Age music pioneer Laraaji on the mysticism of music and the sanctity of laughter.

Are you enjoying the Today, Explained newsletter? Forward it to a friend; they can sign up for it right here. 

And as always, we want to know what you think. We recently changed the format of this newsletter. Any questions, comments, or ideas? We're all ears. 

Specifically: If there is a topic you want us to explain or a story you’re curious to learn more about, let us know by filling out this form or just replying to this email. Your question might be the centerpiece of this newsletter one day or featured in a Friday reader mailbag.

Today's edition was produced and edited by Caroline Houck. We'll see you tomorrow!

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